Gambling On a Heart (34 page)

Zack put his boots beside the chair at the other end of the table. He looked across the meal their children had prepared and slowly sat in the chair. She sensed he was as overwhelmed as she was.

“This is really great,” Zack said after clearing his throat, but his voice was still thick.

“Thanks, Daddy.” Mandy beamed with pride. “Did you have a nice sleepover with Tracy, too?”

Across the table, Bobby narrowed his eyes on Mandy and shook his head. What was
that
about?

Then Mandy leaned toward him and said in a loud whisper, “I didn’t say anything about sex. But when the baby comes, I get to name her.”

Bobby groaned and covered his face with his hands. “Oh, Mandy...”

Tracy’s mouth dropped open, and she caught Zack’s mortified expression. At long last, he rubbed back of his red-tinged neck and let out a long breath. “I stand corrected.
This
is the most embarrassing conversation I’ve ever had.”

“Yep.” With her cheeks burning, she glanced at Bobby. “I think you and I need to have a talk, young man.” Dear Lord, she hadn’t planned to have
that
conversation for a few more years. Bobby’s cheeks were red, and he stared at the table. Needing to do something, Tracy jumped up to pour coffee.

She returned with steaming cups and set one before Zack. His brows furrowed as he looked at his daughter. “Mandy, there isn’t going to be a baby.”

When her little face melted, Tracy felt the disappointment in her own heart. Mandy brightened almost instantly and shrugged. “That’s okay. But I want a baby sister soon.”

Tracy met Zack’s gaze across the table as he swallowed hard enough to make his throat move. He looked at Mandy again. The warmth from earlier completely sucked from the room as surely as if an arctic breeze blew through, leaving it as cold as the empty spaces in her heart.

“Mandy, there isn’t going to be...” His husky voice drifted away with the bitter wind.

Tracy forced a shaky smile and laid a hand on Mandy’s small shoulder. When the little girl turned bright, hopeful eyes on her, she fought the burn in her sinuses. “Why don’t we talk about something else?” She pulled her hand away and glanced at Zack. “I was hoping we could have a barbeque Sunday night after my family comes home.”

Zack shrugged and picked up his cooling cup of coffee. “Sure. Sounds fun.”

An uneasy silence settled over them for a few moments and no one seemed interested in breakfast.

“Hey, Sheriff, do you have to work today?” Bobby flicked a glance at Tracy.

Zack shrugged and sat his mug on the table. “I was planning to. At least for a few hours this morning. Why do you ask?”

Bobby’s shoulders slumped, and he picked up his spoon, but he only played in his cereal by stirring it. “It’s nothin’.”

Mandy reached for the sugar bowl and dumped two spoonfuls on her Cheerios. “Bobby wanted to come over to the CW so you can teach him how to ride.”

“Mandy,” Bobby chided again.

“Well, you did. I figured you could ride old Grasshopper since he’s nice.”

Zack glanced at Tracy before saying to Bobby, “You’d like to go riding?”

Bobby shrugged one shoulder and kept on stirring his cereal. “You’re busy, so don’t worry about it.”

* * * *

Zack swallowed hard, besieged by so much emotion he wasn’t sure what he felt. Despite the embarrassment of a moment ago and the tension afterward, he couldn’t deny he didn’t want the time this morning to end. Somehow, he belonged here with this woman and their children. He wanted to take this little boy and tuck him under his wing.

“Daddy, do you really have to work today? I want to go riding with Bobby. I want to show him Holly and how I can ride around barrels on Poppy,” Mandy whined, referring to her mare and pony. “Please, can’t you take today off?”

Mandy never complained about him working. He knew she didn’t always like it, but she hadn’t ever asked him to stay home. He glanced at Bobby–his face pinched in disappointment. When Zack lifted his eyes to Tracy’s, he saw the hope in them. Did he really have to go in? Dawn, Wyatt, Herb, and the rest of his deputies had the investigations covered. At least, for a few hours.

“I suppose I don’t have to go in to work today. I can check in later. Do you have to work this morning?”

Tracy sighed and nodded. “Unfortunately, Melissa and I have to do all the hair for the Oberton-Garcia wedding. Eight attendants, the bride and both mothers. They’re coming in at nine and have to be done by one. I normally only work on the Saturdays Bobby’s with Jake.” She looked at Bobby. “Sorry, sweetheart, but I guess you’ve got to spend the day with me at the shop. Maybe later we can go over to the CW–”

“You know I hate sittin’ there! Why can’t I just go with Dad? What happened yesterday at the court? Dad said you’d say anything to make him look like the bad guy.”

The mix of anger and pain in Bobby’s voice tugged at something in Zack’s gut. He hated Jake Parker more than ever before. How could that bastard play on his own kid’s emotions?

But it was the pain in Tracy’s voice that clenched his heart. “Bobby, you don’t understand everything that’s going on. Your dad couldn’t...”

Zack reached over and ruffled Bobby’s hair. “How about you come over to the ranch with Mandy and me while your mom’s at work?”

Bobby pulled away from Zack’s touch and looked at Tracy.

She smiled and met Zack’s gaze, then said to Bobby, “It’s okay with me if you want to go with Zack.”

“But Dad doesn’t–”

“Your dad isn’t making decisions for you,” Tracy interrupted. “I think it’s high time for you to learn to ride, and Zack is the best rider I know.”

Bobby looked up at him. The boy’s apprehension was almost palpable, but so was his anticipation. “You’ll teach me how to ride?”

“You bet, buddy.”

“Yay!” Mandy jumped up and down, clapping her hands.

“Well, then. I think we should start eating this great breakfast you two made.” Tracy reached for the milk carton and poured some over her Cheerios.

Zack caught Tracy’s gaze, and his heart skipped a beat. What would life with her be like? Damn, he wished he could allow himself to find out.

Chapter 16

Zack and Tracy made their way through the packed barroom. They found a small table in the back when another couple got up and left. Zack wished the stage was easier to see, but it was the best they could do.

On the stage, Logan sang one of his own songs about a brokenhearted rodeo cowboy. His deep voice had the usually rowdy Longhorn crowd mesmerized, and the dance floor packed with couples two-stepping.

When Tracy sat in the chair he held out for her, Zack was hit with her perfume. The light flowery scent hit him hard in the pit of his gut. He took the seat beside her and draped his arm over the back of her chair.

Julie Larson approached, took their drink orders and collected the cover charge for the live entertainment. Although he saw curiosity in the waitress’s smile, she kept the conversation short when he handed her his credit card. She headed off to give the order to her older brother behind the bar.

The day had turned out to be a good one. While Tracy had gone to her shop, he’d taken Bobby and Mandy back to the CW. There he, with Mandy’s help, had taught Bobby how to sit a horse, and how to ride around the same corral where Zack had learned to ride his first pony when he was still a baby. He’d been surprised at how easy the kid caught on, and how well he’d done in the saddle. The three of them eventually had gone for a ride through the pasture near the barn.

After a supper of hamburgers and potato salad at the ranch, Amy Jackson had come to sit with Mandy, and Tracy had taken Bobby to her friend’s place to spend the evening. Logan was done at eleven o’clock, which was perfect so she could take Bobby home.

As much as Zack wanted to spend the night tangled in the sheets with Tracy, she’d said that she couldn’t leave Bobby with a friend while she spent the night with him. She didn’t want to give Jake that much advantage in his custody case by doing exactly what he’d been accusing her of. Even though the devil would be ice fishing in the bowels of hell before Jake Parker ever won a custody case, Zack humored her. Besides, hearing his little girl say the
S
word that morning was enough to dunk his libido into a bucket full of ice.

Julie brought their drinks. He took a sip of his Coke and sat back to watch Tracy. She looked every bit a cowgirl in tight jeans, tailored white Western shirt with red roses embroidered across the yoke and red lace at the collar and cuffs. But the sexiest things she was wearing were her red cowboy boots and a doe-colored Stetson. Would she ever agree to have sex with him wearing only her boots and hat and nothing else?

When Logan started the next song–a cover of Restless Heart’s
I’m Still Loving You
, she turned to him. “Want to dance?”

“Sure.”

Hand-in-hand, they found room at the edge of the dance floor and fell into an up-close dance. Logan and his band sang about how he’d need his lover until the sun didn’t shine and time stood still. Was his brother trying to tell him something?

Could he just walk away from her in a few weeks? Or was it too late?

Could he go back to endless days of work and trying to raise his daughter without a woman around? Would Amanda’s bedtime prayers go from wanting her momma to come home from heaven to wanting Tracy back in her life?

The song ended and she looked up at him when he moved her into the next step after the last note. He sucked in a breath.

Before they could move off the floor, the next song started with fiddle and steel guitar in a classic old Texas swing melody. Logan sang about finding love again and never learning to live without that one special woman. Where the hell had the boy come up with the lyrics? As far as he could remember, his brother had never been in love.

His body responded to Tracy’s closeness, and he was damned glad the tail of his Western shirt was tucked into his jeans, which fit well, but fortunately, weren’t skin tight.

She laid her head on his shoulder and hummed along with the melody.

“How do you know this song?”

Tracy shrugged and looked up at him. “The CD Logan cut a few months ago. He gave me one before he started selling them after his shows.”

He let the topic drop, but a memory wiggled its way to the surface of his mind while he danced with the woman he’d never learned to live without.

“Oh, maybe that’s why she’s back with Logan, then.”
Fifteen minutes after Brent Parker had made that puzzling statement the day Zack had stopped him for speeding, he’d caught Tracy and Logan in a close hug. Had he missed the kiss, or had he interrupted before it could happen?

The song wound down, the band broke into a faster tune, and the line dancers took over the worn wood floor. He and Tracy headed back to their table, which they’d saved by leaving her Stetson and their drinks. Once they were seated again, she drank some of her sweet tea and swayed to the music, completely focused on the man on stage.

Zack took a sip of his Coke. “I didn’t realize you and Logan were that close of friends.”

“What?” She looked at him with a puckered brow.

Her hand rested on his thigh, and his arm was around her chair. They appeared to be the perfect dating couple, but he knew better. He and Tracy had a gulf between them as big as the state of Texas, and he couldn’t see any way for them to close it.

She’d still be the one who’d cheated on him, and his lack of love for his wife, because he’d never let Tracy go, had been the reason for Lisa’s death.

Was Tracy now sneaking around behind his back with his own brother?

“I just find it surprising. I knew you and Logan were friends, but he hadn’t given me one of his CDs until I asked for it.” He didn’t give a shit he sounded like a jealous husband. But, damn, he was pissed that he was jealous.

If she was seeing Logan, wouldn’t that be the perfect way to break it off and never see her again?

She looked at him, but he tilted his head under his hat brim to hide his face. “I told you Logan became my best friend over the years.”

“No, you never told me.”

She sipped her drink. Without looking at him, she set the glass on the table, shrugging. “Over the past few years he’s filled some of the gap left when Dylan went off to the Army. Whenever I’ve needed a friend, he was always there.” She turned her attention back to his brother on stage. When the set was over, she clapped and whistled through her teeth. “Damn, I just know he’ll knock somebody’s socks off in Nashville.”